Navigating Leadership Challenges in Remote Teams - Best Tips and Tricks for Leads
The widespread adoption of remote work has reinvigorated countless industries. Since office real estate and local talent pools are no longer restrictions, remote teams can meet emerging challenges with greater agility and expertise.
However, the switch to remote work has also introduced specific challenges that only a competent, empathetic, and proactive team lead can overcome. Here are five unique remote work-related challenges you're up against and how you can overcome them.
Lack of Engagement and Responsibility Awareness
Remote work comes with fewer distractions and micromanagement opportunities, which contribute to improved productivity. However, remote team members are also more likely to feel a disconnect between their role and the business’s overall mission and goals. Not addressing this can lead to confusion and complacency.
Establishing expectations and ensuring they’re being met is a manager’s top responsibility. Project management tools make it easier to define goals clearly and present seemingly disjointed tasks in a broader context. With tangible deadlines and distinct KPIs in mind, remote employees will have concrete goals to work towards.
While guidance is essential, you should steer away from micromanagement. It’s a winning strategy for everyone. Autonomous team members get to structure their day as they please while focusing on desired outcomes. Meanwhile, it becomes easier for you to establish trust and put your leadership talents towards tackling more pressing problems.
Limited Communication and Low Team Cohesion
A Slack message might convey information, but it doesn’t carry the subtle nuances an in-person
exchange would. The clinical nature of digital communication also affects team cohesion since there’s no substitute for the knowing looks, smirks, or quick whispers that help foster camaraderie.
Managers need a two-pronged approach to tackle the communication challenge. On the one hand, they need to provide streamlined and secure communication tools. That means choosing and sticking to a single business communication platform and video conferencing tool. Since they can’t control which networks remote team members participate from, using the best VPNs for secure, encrypted communication should also be mandatory.
On the other hand, managers are also communication facilitators. This ranges from scheduled weekly huddles to one-on-one time where individual team members can voice concerns or present ideas. Don’t neglect less formal means of communication like virtual water coolers or team-building events, either. Actively providing a more relaxed setting and activities where people who may be working on different sides of the globe can forge bonds will noticeably boost engagement and a sense of team spirit.
Unclear Opportunities for Development and Appreciation
Feeling pigeonholed into one’s current role with few, if any, opportunities for growth is a valid concern. Remote workers, especially if they’re freelancers or share management with on-premise teams, may feel unseen and eventually become disgruntled by a lack of perceived or real avenues of advancement.
Luckily, enterprising leaders can preempt these issues. They may organize or make remote team members aware of mentorship opportunities and fast tracks for advancement. Exposing siloed workers to other teams and their practices can broaden their competencies and develop them into someone who can help elsewhere in a pinch. Finally, good leaders never hesitate to give due credit to employees who go above and beyond, regardless of where they're working from.
Increased Data Security and Compliance Risks
The shift toward remote work also marks a shift in responsibilities when it comes to data handling. Notably, the IT department no longer has complete insight into how and when data is being accessed. Remote employees may do so from unsafe networks or store sensitive data inappropriately. This exponentially raises the risk of exposure and may carry data handling compliance penalties.
A security-conscious team lead needs to prioritize both tools and training. For example, mandate employees to use a remote access VPN when connecting to the company’s internal networks. That way, only users with proper credentials can access sensitive files while their transfer is encrypted and can’t be monitored by outsiders.
Vet and appoint an online storage solution that securely encrypts data at rest and introduce a permissions-based system to access it.
Most importantly, organize training sessions so all remote employees are aware of the security risks improper data handling brings and can competently abide by the practices you establish.
Challenges in Work-Life Balance
Productivity in remote workers doesn’t necessarily suffer due to distance and lack of oversight. If anything, the lack of boundaries between one’s home and workplace can cause overzealous team members to work long hours and not get adequate rest. While reassuring to count on during sprints, maintaining such a pace eventually takes a physical and mental toll.
Considerate team leads have their subordinates' long-term well-being in mind. They discourage excessive working hours and coordinate so that everyone has ample time to recharge, even if they're working in wildly different time zones. You can even look into specific wellness programs and provide resources that will help stressed employees avoid burnout.
Related Blog Posts
Read also
Ready to get started?
If you want to dive into the details just Book a Free Consultation with our staff and we’ll be happy to answer your questions.
